JOHANNESBURG (AP) 鈥� commemorates on Sunday 70 years since the Women’s March of 1956, when around 20,000 women of all races marched to the administrative capital, Pretoria, to protest apartheid laws forcing Black women to carry passes that restricted their movement. It was a powerful moment in the fight against white minority rule.
But seven decades after risking arrest, torture and even death to challenge racist laws, many women say their fight for freedom in South Africa is unfinished as they continue to grapple with , poverty and inequality.
A United Nations Women-supported study in 2024 found more than one in three South African women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
An octogenarian recalls the march
Ramnie Dinat, 84, was just a teenager during the Aug. 9, 1956 march. She recalled helping her mother, Ama Naidoo, an anti-apartheid activist, organize women ahead of the rally. Black women, women of Indian heritage like Naidoo, and even some white women marched that day.
鈥淏lack women were organizing, and Indian women couldn鈥檛 be silent,鈥� Dinart told The Associated Press, adding that nobody at the time imagined that 鈥渉istory would remember that day.鈥�
鈥淲e were ordinary women who believed we could make a difference. We simply believed it was the right thing to do.鈥�
A jail that has turned into a museum
Perched on a ridge overlooking central Johannesburg, the Women鈥檚 Jail was a cornerstone of South Africa鈥檚 prison system. Today, it鈥檚 a museum that stands near the Constitutional Court as a reminder of the country鈥檚 journey from oppression to democracy.
Many of the march鈥檚 leaders and participants were later imprisoned in the Women鈥檚 Jail, where activists were held separately according to their race just as apartheid enforced segregation everywhere in South Africa.
鈥淚t was designed to break, humiliate, dehumanize,” said Nolubabalo Memese, Visitors Services Manager at Constitution Hill, the precinct that houses the former prison complex. She said Black women held at the prison weren’t allowed to wear underwear or have proper sanitary towels.
Now, Memese says, the museum honors not only famous figures like 鈥� Nelson Mandela’s second wife 鈥� and Albertina Sisulu, who became icons of the anti-apartheid struggle, but also thousands of ordinary women whose names rarely appear in history books and whose sacrifices went unnoticed.
鈥淥ur freedom is built on the shoulders of those kinds of women who were at this prison,鈥� she said.
South African Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion Kgothatso Montjane echoes the sentiment.
Montjane, 40, is one of the country’s most successful para-athletes; she won the 2024 Wimbledon wheelchair doubles title. She says the fight the women took on 70 years ago has “paved the way for us.鈥�
鈥淭oday I鈥檓 the first Black South African woman to compete in all four major tennis tournaments,鈥� she told the AP.
Violence against women remains widespread in South Africa
Memese said that while apartheid ended in 1994 and South African women are no longer restricted from moving, working or participating in society, can still deny them freedom.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a different monster which precludes us from enjoying freedom of movement and economic participation. And that鈥檚 gender-based violence. That鈥檚 crime,鈥� Memese said.
鈥淚f you want to go jog at six o鈥檆lock and it鈥檚 a bit dark, you鈥檇 rather not,” she added.
The U.N. has described the country’s and girls as a crisis and a 鈥渘ational wound.”
Economic disparity hinders South African women
Government data says women are more likely than men to be unemployed, shoulder unpaid care work and remain underrepresented in senior leadership.
Montjane, the tennis star, said structural inequalities are also still evident in sport, where financial obstacles determine who gets access to elite competition, despite a select few reaching an elite level.
鈥淭he barriers I had to overcome … in a sport like tennis, it鈥檚 just a financial issue,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 lie when they say tennis is a white sport, and you don鈥檛 really find people of color dominating in this sport.鈥�
Still, she believes the women of 1956 changed the course of history for her and generations to come.
鈥淭he platform has been set,鈥� she said.
When South Africa broke down the old apartheid Women’s Jail, some of the same bricks were used to build the museum in its place, which resonates with Memese.
鈥淲e are using the bricks of the past to build our future,鈥� she said. 鈥淥nce we forget the past, it鈥檚 very easy for us to make the same mistakes.鈥�
For Dinat, one of the few with living memories of the ’56 march, the lesson hasn鈥檛 changed in 70 years.
鈥淓very generation has its own struggles, and every generation has to decide whether it will stand up for what is right,” she said.
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